Rick Sittig Says Goodbye to Jack in the Box

Richard “Don’t Call Me Dick” Sittig has penned a personal farewell to Jack Box, the character he created, directed and voiced for more than two decades.

Our readers knew for some time that Sittig’s Secret Weapon Marketing had lost its first and most important client before the story went public last week. But the agency did a fairly good job keeping the news out of the headlines–and based on the tone of the note, we can surmise that Sittig is not particularly happy about the development.

In the note, which appeared on Secret Weapon’s Facebook page last Friday, Sittig thanks the brand for a 20-year relationship, noting the significance of his agency’s own work (“There aren’t too many campaigns that span nearly 400 TV ads”) and thanking JitB for helping Secret Weapon “buck QSR convention.”

This line is particularly biting:

“We’re happy to have helped make you so popular. And we’re proud to have helped Jack in the Box grow from 1200 to 2200 restaurants.”

We can certainly understand why Sittig might be bitter given that his work with two different agencies completely redefined a struggling Jack in the Box brand.

But who can we blame for the account changing hands? Readers seem to think client CMO Keith Guilbault bears some of the responsibility, but we feel like this was probably more of a group effort.